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British private served with 8th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1938-1940; private served with 11th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB and France, 1940; POW in Germany, 1940-1945

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REEL 1 Background in Penshaw and Ilkley Moor, GB, 1918-1938: family; area and community grew up in; pit accidents; details of his thirteen siblings; leisure activities; religion; education; breaking of leg and recovery; time in Boy Scouts; odd jobs on leaving school; employment at colliery.
REEL 2 Continues: leisure activities as teenager; First Aid Classes and competitions; story of small girl's death; conditions in mine; conditions in mine; helmets used in mine; methods of gas detection; pit ponies; activity of union; details of pay; items spent pocket money on; work in Convalescent Home on Ilkley Moor; visits to Ilkley market; work in coke works; period unemployed; reasons for joining Territorial Army; process of joining. Aspects of period as private with 8th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 2/1938-9/1939: uniform and equipment; description of Houghton-le-Spring drill hall; issue of rifle; weapons trained on; opinion of Lewis and Bren guns; organisation of unit; officers and NCOs in D Coy; discipline; story of visit to Alnwick while on camp; wearing of puttees; boots worn; shirts worn on camp; equipment issued.
REEL 3 Continues: drill; exercises; stove; marching at Light Infantry pace; weapons training at drill hall; accommodation at Whitburn; firing on ranges at Whitburn; accommodation on weekend camps at Hart; 3" mortar training; make-up of mortar teams; social activities; drill meetings; bounty; punishments given; kit inspections and cleaning of webbing; reaction of mother to joining Territorial Army; attitude towards war; opinion that training based on First World War; route marches; items carried on route marches; brigade camp at Alnwick; accommodation and aircraft drill; storage of equipment; rations and eating of meals; reveille; fatigues and duties in camp; role of camp; discipline; guard duties; exercises; visits into Alnwick and Regimental Police duties; signs of approaching war; recruitment parades; call-up of first militia.
REEL 4 Continues: description and opinion of Boyes Anti-Tank Rifle; grenade training; bayonet training; sports at drill hall; physical training; issue of gas masks; wet weather clothing; new greatcoat; opinion of training; outbreak of war and mobilisation; reactions of family to war; attitude of civilians to Territorial Army; advised to apply for Medical orderly post; First Aid training before war in colliery and with St John's Ambulance; billets at dog track; formation of the 11th Bn; posting to 11th Bn after hospitalisation. Aspects of period as private with 11th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 9/1939-4/1940: reaction to transfer; move into drill hall and issue of equipment; posted to D Coy; medical room; visits of medical officer sick parades; common health complaints; inoculations; duties in medical room; sleeping arrangements; rifle issued; posting to Sunderland; accommodation; training at Seaburn; medical room; charge for entertaining; protection stripe; equipment situation; gas training.
REEL 5 Continues: leave; reaction of family to going abroad; journey to Southampton; crossing to Le Havre and reaction to going abroad. Aspects of operations as private with 11th Bn in France, 4/1940-5/1940: first impression of France; train journey to Bolberque; march through village; accommodation; marching; train journey to second posting; work on airfield runways and accommodation; pay and leisure activities; relationship with civilians; drink available; story of lift with 10th Bn troops; daily routine and parachute searches; weather; opinion that wouldn't be used in fight; memories of Captain Martin; NCOs and troops in platoon; memories of Sergeant Major Hutchinson; discipline; engineer support; air activity; move to east of Arras; dug-in along railway; French troops; order to withdraw; left behind for night; overtaken by Germans; hid in garden hut; removal of rifle bolts and cap badges.
REEL 6 Continues: surrender. Aspects of period as POW in transit, 5/1940-7/1940: initial treatment; arrival of SS; driven to Cambrai; chopping of firewood; officers put to work; drink given; time in garage and church; letters written and burned; physical condition; march to tennis court; photographed by Germans; food; marched to Belgium; spent nights in open fields; conditions on march; butchering of cows by Algerian and Moroccan POWs; hunger; attitude towards French; food continually promised; chicory drink given; story of drunken German jabbing POWs with bayonet; arrival in Bastogne; powdered milk at station; train journey to Trier; march to Hitler Youth camp; bread and jam eaten; train journey to Thorn; condition of POWs; soup from Red Cross. Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 7/1940-4/1945: arrival at area outside Fort 13; sleeping arrangements; soup kitchen; POW disc; latrines; rations; morning procedures; parades; expansion of camp; working parties; moved into Fort 13; work on airfield near Gdynia; accommodation; washing facilities; move to work with mechanical digger; Kaiser Wilhelm's batman; stealing of turnips.
REEL 7 Continues: saluting of German soldiers; newspapers shown; entertainment at weekend; story of boiled sweet found; start of day; relationship with guards; rations; letters written home; German newspaper for POWs; news from radio; discipline; turnip field story; punishment for POW stealing bread; morale in camp; book passed round; washing facilities; delousing in Gdinya; onset of winter and issue of second set of battle dress; Red Cross parcel; internal punishment for stealing; journey to Fort 15, Thorn; description of fort; sleeping arrangements; stove in wall; weather conditions; overcoats issued; shirt made from paliasse; Christmas and New Year; formed into German Labour Bn; accommodation in Graudenz; work building; situation for civilians; pay; story of bread brought in by civilians; front line troops moving through for Russia.
REEL 8 Continues: improving organisation of camp; distribution of Red Cross parcels; lunch on working party; relationship with guards; method for stealing bread; story of German officer giving out extra soup; work discipline; start of day; evening activities; air raid shelters moved; troop movements seen; movement of Jewish people; work on a farm; accommodation and visit to pub with farmer; discipline; possibility of escape; rations; Red Cross parcels; chickens stolen; stove in billets; distribution of Red Cross parcels; visits to the village store for beer; local pub; jobs on farm; work with animals; relationship with farmers; identification worn by non-Germans; news from Eastern Front; moved to Rahmal Sagorsh; accommodation; latrines.
REEL 9 Continues: comradeship on farm; news of war; harvest work; baking of bread; relationship with civilians; discipline; moved to Marienburg; accommodation; latrines; roll calls; entry of America into war; journey to Graudenz; building work at German Military Hospital; punishment for poor work; time in quarentine following outbreak of chicken pox; German methods for dealing with cold; issue and storage of shaving soap; heating; items sent from Regiment and Durham miners; parcels from home; censorship of mail; discipline; placed in 40th German Labour Bn; news of German victories; move to Heydebreck; Labour Battalions present; roll calls; items stolen from factory; entertainment; accommodation; rations; morale life from Red Cross parcels; bartering with items from parcels; visit from Gestapo to search for stolen items; signal given as warning; methods of hiding items; work at factory; methods of sabotage; civilians working in factory.
REEL 10 Continues: morning procedures; clothing given; washing facilities; details of the building of factory; other prisoners working on factory; treatment of Russians; lectures; news of war; acceptance of treatment and stories of the treatment of Russian prisoners; guards in factory; funeral of Fowle; camp defences; population of camp; medical facilities; laying of cables; refusal to work with French; method of French POWs to make work easier; attempts to sabotage and delay; canteen; rations; Italians in camp; length of day; shorts made for work in summer; overalls; news of D-Day and Battle of the Bulge; smoking in factory; bombing raids; death of POW from bombing; reactions to air raids; plotting of time bombs; anti-aircraft activity; signs of the Russian advance; effect on Germans; German criminals working in factory.
REEL 11 Continues: story of prisoners killed while digging up a time bomb; asked to fight Russians; further details of bombing raids; pantomime costumes and camp band; deaths of POWs in woods; taking cover in woods; camp padre; situation in New Year 1945; destruction of factory; winter conditions. Aspects of period as POW in transit, 1945: condition of prisoners brought from Auschwitz and start of march; announcement of march; first night on march; conditions on march; sledges made; length of march; state of POWs; stealing of pigeon; punishment; guards; relationship with civilians in Czechoslovakia; looting of countryside; treatment of ill; burial of fireman; ice in boots; night in hotel; trip to bakery; attitude of guards; arrival in Bavaria; raiding of a spud cellar; air attack on column; end of march at Bayreuth; damage to railway station; air raid at Bayreuth; funeral of casualties and reactions to; orders to march back east; arrival of Americans.
REEL 12 Continues: accommodation and relationship with civilians; revenge against one guard; food from Americans; time to west of Bayreuth; taken to Munich airfield; showers and delousing; uniform given; stay in Brussels; journey to Tilbury via Ostend; taken to American camp at High Wycombe; issue of new uniforms; journey to Co Durham and leave; reception from family; camp money taken out of army pay; problems settling back into life in GB; training in High Wycombe; story of cleaning showers at the Military Hospital in Graudenz; bread stolen from hospital; humour in camps; army work in Colchester; story of missing telephone duties; punishment; demobilisation in Northampton; final pay; return to civilian work with ICI; worst moments as POW; importance of Red Cross parcels; stories of mail received; best time as POW; joining of British Legion and Fellowship of Servicemen.

Over two million American servicemen passed through Britain during the Second World War. In 1944, at the height of activity, up to half a million were based there with the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Their job was to man and maintain the vast fleets of aircraft needed to attack German cities and industry.